PRESS RELEASE
STARMUS IV FULL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCMENT
THE IMPRESSIVE LINEUP INCLUDES STEPHEN HAWKING AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER, 10 NOBEL LAUREATES, BUZZ ALDRIN, LARRY KING, OLIVER STONE AND BRIAN COX
June 18th - 23rd 2017
The Starmus board consists of Stephen Hawking, Brian May, Peter Gabriel, Richard Dawkins, Alexei Leonov, Jill Tarter, Robert Williams, David Eicher, Jack Szostak and the festival’s founder, Garik Israelian – these great minds have devised an incredible programme, recruiting the most intelligent, creative and artistic beings on the planet.
Under the title ‘Life And The Universe’ Starmus will once again celebrate a synthesis between science and music. The festival’s theme will be broad covering origin and evolution, the human brain, society, technology and global issues.
This year’s programme will open with a fascinating conversation between three of the last of the surviving lunar astronauts from the historic Apollo programme; Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt will come together for the first time in front of an audience for a thrilling hour-long debate. The moonwalkers will explore their incredible landings and will share their different views on future missions to Mars.
Stephen Hawking, as the festival’s keynote speaker, will captivate audiences with a new lecture on Black Holes and Time Warps. In his 75th year the eminent Professor will make his first ever visit to Norway.
“Starmus is an important and very unique interdisciplinary festival of people working in different fields — astronomers, astronauts, cosmologists, physicists, philosophers, musicians, artists, biologists etc., who share an interest in the universe, how it began and is now and how we may explore and use its many facets.” Professor Stephen Hawking
Oscar winning filmmaker Oliver Stone will speak on the subject of decoding truth in film, while Larry King will speak frankly about the media industry. Economist Jeffrey Sachs will explore the very topical How we can survive Trump, climate change and other global crisis.
A highlight this year will be The Nobel Laureate Panel Discussion: 10 Nobel laureates from across the globe will be discussing The Role of Science in the 21st Century. There has never, in the history of festivals, been so many Nobel Prize winners taking part in one panel discussion. The line up is: Edvard Moser, Adam Riess, Chris Pissarides, Finn Kydland, George Smoot, May-Britt Moser, Robert Wilson, Stefan W. Hell, Susumu Tonegawa and Torsten Wiesel.
Carlos Moedas, the EC Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, will open the debate with a keynote address.
The Starmus IV programme will celebrate outstanding contributions from women to the world of science and astronomy. Nobel Laureate May-Britt Moser’s performance, Into Whiteness will be a first – a groundbreaking artistic and musical presentation of her scientific discoveries related to the brain. While Lisa Randall will explore Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Jill Tarter’s discussion title (Sufficiently Advances Technologies: Indistinguishable from Magic, or from Nature?) will intrigue festivalgoers. Emmanuelle Charpentier, who Time Magazine designated as one of the 100 most influential people in the world will grace the Starmus stage. A core aim of Starmus is to encourage and inspire more women to take an interest in science by presenting role models who are changing the world.
Technology will also be a more significant part of the programme this year with innovative ideas shared by leaders who have changed the way we communicate, such as Skype co- founder Jaan Tallinn, who will explore artificial intelligence.
Brian Greene who The Washington Post refer to as “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today”, will take the stage to discuss String Theory and the Fabric of Spacetime. He will also participate in the highly anticipated Stephen Hawking Medal Ceremony.
A major highlight will be the second Stephen Hawking Medal Ceremony, which will include unique performances from musicians and scientists – more to be announced on this shortly.
The Conference Programme starts at 1.30pm every day; The Venue: Spektrum
For the full programme and list of speakers please click on this link: www.starmus.com/programme2017
Morning Entertainment Programme
10am – 12.30pm
During the mornings there will be a fascinating choice of activities and panel discussions to attend in Spektrum as well as other locations in Trondheim. There will be opportunities for festivalgoers to meet speakers and astronauts and to embrace interactive experiences:
RT News Television Network will deliver an innovative concept – The RT Space 360 Experience which will take place in a specially designed RT Virtual Reality cinema. Festivalgoers will be given VR glasses and will see the firstever panoramic content from on board The International Space Station. RT’s cutting edge, immersive Space 360 project is a collaborative effort between RT, Roscosmos State Corporation, Energia Rocket and Space Corporation that will run throughout 2017. Space 360 is an impressive mixture of astounding, never-before-seen visuals and unique, first-hand storytelling.
Kaspersky Lab will install a major cybersecurity education hub, from which daily education sessions will be delivered by experts in the fields of both cybersecurity and science. During the festival, Eugene Kaspersky will be joined by other experts for a panel discussion about 'Industry 4.0', which will examine the relationship between science, modern industry and cybersecurity.
BBC Radio 4 will be bringing it's multi-award winning science/comedy show "The Infinite Monkey Cage" to STARMUS for a very special recording of this hugely popular series and podcast. Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince will be taking to the stage to chair a truly out of this world panel of guests.
A film covering Alexei Leonov’s first incredible space walk in 1965 will be screened and there will be an exhibition of previously unseen images capturing the cosmonaut’s incredible career. Alexei Leonov will make an appearance.
Notes to Editor: The previous three Stamus festivals were held in The Canary Islands and this fourth event will take the festival to Trondheim, the thrilling scientific capital of Norway.
This new location will enable Starmus to flourish in a vibrant cultural setting. The coastal city of Trondheim combines beautiful landscape with scientific and cultural centres, including a Nobel Prize winning university with nearly a thousand years of academic traditions. It is viewed as the technological and scientific capital of the Land of the Midnight Sun and will provide the perfect backdrop for a festival that showcases the best from both the academic and cultural world.
The festivals audience will triple in size.
Starmus is renowned to be the world's most ambitious science and music festival – the Guardian stated that the festival has “enough brains to fill a multiverse.”
Tickets on sale www.starmus.com
Starmus and its scientific and musical legacy: Starmus Festival was born in 2011, the brainchild of astrophysicist Garik Israelian. His aim was to make the most universal science and art accessible to the public and that he achieved with three festivals that reached full capacity with participation from the world’s most influential scientists and astronomists along with superstar musicians. The magic of Starmus is not confined to science - music is also an essential component of the festival. One of the most prominent members of the Advisory Board, the great Peter Gabriel, former leader of UK band Genesis, highlights the close ties between astronomy and music: "Musicians explore and define what exists inside us, astronomers explore and define what exists outside of us. That's precisely what I love about Starmus: the combination of the two worlds".
With an unbeatable panel of great minds, the countdown begins to Starmus IV, amid considerable international expectation.
About Trondheim:
Trondheim is a renowned location for students and academics. It has been ranked several times as Norway’s most impressive student city and has long standing traditions in education with a Cathedral School that has been in existence since 1152. The roots of today’s university go all the way back to 1760, with the establishment of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS). The city has a population of more than 188,000, with 33,000 students attending and nearly 7000 employees working at the university, NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The University contributes an incredibly high level of science, education and innovation. The university and its spin-offs is one of the main reasons why the city is referred to as the science and technology capital of Norway.
Trondheim also has a vibrant cultural life. The city hosts festivals in genres including jazz, blues, chamber music, world music, rock and pop all year round with a peak during the summer when the light almost never leaves. During the Starmus festival in Trondheim in June 2017, the sun will go down at midnight and rises at 3am.
Situated just above 63 degrees north, the coastal city which was founded more than a thousand years ago (997), with its strong academic traditions combined with a culture-loving population is the perfect location for a festival such as Starmus, which brings out the best of both worlds.
For further information please contact: Nicole Ettinger Ettinger PR
E. nicole@ettingerpr.com T. +44 7515 39410